Her Memory
by Tziput13
Summary: The Cortex Vortex space station has been destroyed, and Coco is happy with what she and her brother have managed to do. But Nitrus Brio isn't going to let her go without a few questions, bringing up old events and making her remember about the past she has tried to forget. One-shot.


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**Her Memory**

It was debatable whether Dr. Nitrus Brio was a real genius or not, but no one could really say he wasn't without skill.

That was the first thought that occurred to Coco when she saw the bright explosion lighting up the sky in the night. After that, the Cortex Vortex was gone, putting a definitive end to Cortex's second plan.

Coco smiled, content to see the last trace of the evil scientist's machinations removed from the picture. Crash looked quite entrapped by the sight: he kept his eyes fixed on the light above, with a large grin plastered on his face.

Soon enough, the sky was suddenly filled with random lights, red in color and moving fast in all directions. As expected, a number of fragments from the now ex-space station were heading for Earth, turning into flaming spheres similar to meteors as soon as they made contact with the atmosphere.

Coco couldn't help sharing a little of her brother's fascination over the scene. Looking for the gems needed to power the laser weapon contraption had not been an easy task, as Coco had learned herself, and seeing the results of their fatigue in full display in front of them was somewhat cathartic. She eventually decided to sit down and enjoy the view, as Crash walked a bit forward on the platform to get a closer look at the showcase of lights.

In fact, Coco was so distracted that she had completely forgotten about the guy who had let this happen in the first place. Soon, her wandering thoughts came to an abrupt stop as she heard someone cough harshly. Brio had approached her and was standing right behind her.

Coco scrambled to her feet and faced the scientist, a scowl on her face. As far as Crash was concerned, Brio was a good guy for the time being, and even Aku-Aku had admitted that, by helping them, the scientist had showed at least some will to do some good in opposing Cortex, even if it was mainly revenge driving him.

She knew better than both of them.

"What do you want?" she said curtly.

Brio's stoic face wasn't affected at all by her tone. "Oh, s-s-sorry," he stammered in his usual way of speaking. "I was just taking a closer look at t-the show. Magnificent, isn't it?"

Coco didn't reply and decided to return her attention to the 'meteor' shower and ignore him, though now that Brio's had made his presence known she was no more able to enjoy the view without worries.

"It is my own d-d-doing, after all, results of my own invention," he continued, a sort of proudness in his voice. "C-c-cortex had no way to see this c-c-coming. He… he…" he let out an uncontrolled laugh.

"I-I only regret that he missed the fall of his s-s-space station himself, wherever he is now."

Brio ceased talking, and for a moment, Coco hoped that gloating was all she was going to bear. Maybe even he would've had enough of talking to himself at some point and—

"D-d-don't you ever regret what happened, C-c-coco Bandicoot?"

…yet, she should've expected it.

Coco looked at Brio once again—now, she was visibly frowning and making no effort to hide her hostility. "What _are _you talking about, Brio?"

"You know what I am t-talking about…" Brio spluttered his words and had to tilt his head for a moment to control a tic. "We both know. I only w-w-wonder… why? Why did you not join me, Coco Bandicoot?"

Coco glanced at Crash: his brother was still distracted by the meteor-shower-lookalike. She decided that this was a thing she had to handle herself.

"I recall I told you why, Brio, and I thought I was clear. Don't you remember that?"

"I s-s-still can't understand your reasoning," Brio explained. "Look!" he gestured towards the laser machine—towards the light spectacle in the sky. "This… this was my work… and it could've been yours as well. The achievements we could've reached together, Coco Bandicoot… we could've reached greatness, better than Cortex's own work and any of his creations. Yet… you refused to follow me."

"How can you even expect me to join you _now?" _Coco uttered. "I don't want to take part in any of your plans, Brio. I _know _that helping us now was just your way to get back at Cortex, and I also know that you're far from being redeemed…"

"That is c-c-correct," Brio confirmed, unperturbed by Coco's accusations. "However, don't you misunderstand me… I am n-n-no more interested in you. You are t-t-too far gone, sadly… but even so, there was a moment in the past, where you were… different. Where I thought y-y-you could be… more than this. This… f-f-family you've built around yourself… you could've been so much more, Coco Bandicoot. Together, we c-c-could have destroyed Cortex before his plan backfired like it did… we could have outdone him! All we could have achieved… and you threw it all away!"

Coco's scowl was unmoved by his words. "I've made peace with my decision, Brio. It's unfortunate that you haven't done the same."

Brio took the jab and simply grunted. "Perhaps… what I know is that, unlike Cortex, I know what I am good that… I know that my inventions always work a-a-as intended," he hissed slowly, turning his face away from Coco. The bandicoot hoped that, by being aggressive, he would make the scientist relent in his current goal. Whether that was just annoying her or some other thing, she wasn't sure, but she cared little.

"Yet… _you did not. _You were always… slightly different. You were… someone else."

Suddenly, a series of images resurfaced in Coco's mind. Memories she had tried to hide during the past few months, covered by layers and layers of new, _good _memories, thanks to Crash and Aku Aku. All of them put aside against her will, revealing events that she didn't want to remember.

"You baffle me, Coco Bandicoot," Brio kept rambling, missing on the internal turmoil that he was causing inside his interlocutor. "You were indeed d-different, back then. What c-c-changed? What happened? Why…"

* * *

"Why is Cortex such an i-i-idiot?!" Brio seethed. His laments went unheard: he was walking by himself in one of the inner hallways inside Cortex's castle. Indeed, this was exactly what Brio needed, since he wasn't sure what side the mutants would've supported with their loyalty in case they heard him venting his frustration.

Yes, Tiny Tiger and the Komodo Brothers seemed to be the ones who respected him the most, but Tiny was as loyal to him as to Cortex as far as he knew, while the reptile mutants were keen on double-crossing. Perhaps he could even convince Ripper Roo to switch sides considering his wild personality, but it was a jump in the dark… No, he couldn't trust any of them, not fully.

Except for one, maybe. The same one he intended to go meet right now.

In any case, he definitely didn't want anyone else to hear his judgment concerning Cortex's own intelligence.

"The Vortex is not ready… that's what I said, _multiple times, _but he won't listen, t-t-the fool!" Brio moaned. He was sure that Cortex would attempt to use the vortex soon enough, despite his protests. He had sincerely no idea what the vortex was going to do when used on one of the mutants, but Cortex was just too stuck-up to understand his worries. The vortex could backfire, it could turn the chosen mutant against Cortex, it could even turn his allegiance around and make him an enemy of them all!

And the fact that Cortex had not told him yet _who_ the mutant that was going to be used as test subject for the vortex was made him even madder.

He was reconsidering the reasons why he joined Cortex in the first place… yet, he couldn't say that his stay at the castle had gone without results. With Cortex's resources and even help, when he wasn't actually slowing things down, Brio had managed to reach new heights. They had created a series of loyal creatures far above the standard of animals or even humans, and the vortex had stopped to be a mere idea, concretizing itself in a real machine. But Brio's patience was starting to run thin.

He needed, _wanted_ something better than this situation he was stuck in. He had thought of overthrowing Cortex before, but doing it by himself was easier said than done; even worse, he didn't know whether he was alone in this one at all.

That was one of the reasons why he had undertaken a personal project of his without Cortex or really anyone else knowing. Cortex himself was too distracted to notice one missing animal from their collection of test specimen, specifically in the bandicoot cage, and Brio had only needed to change a few lines in his own written reports to make it all look like nothing was missing. Once he found a hidden place inside the castle where no one would have even thought of searching, the rest pretty much happened by itself.

And Brio had succeeded, once again. _Unlike Cortex!_

The scientist managed to turn his facial expression into a triumphant smile as he made his way to one apparently plain looking door, among hundreds. Cortex had a habit of favoring pure strength, but albeit he had learned to see how useful creatures such as the koala could be, what was strength without control?

He finally stopped his stroll in the hallway and turned to look at a supposedly anonymous entrance. Brio materialized a set of keys and proceeded to open it, revealing another corridor. Cortex might have been the owner of this place for a long time, but he couldn't know everything about it once the castle reached a certain size… something that Brio could easily take advantage of.

He closed the passage behind himself and had to stop for a moment to hold in another twitch and an uncontrolled chuckle as his thoughts ran rampant. Then, he proceeded deeper into the corridors, soon reaching sections lit up by a few well-placed torches.

There were various rooms on the sides, most of which were empty: sometimes even the doors were absent or damaged beyond repair, and the rooms themselves were filled with dust, spider-webs and the feeble moon light coming through one window per room. When he discovered this place, Brio had guessed that they could be old dungeon cells long forgotten. It was just about perfect for what he had in mind.

Eventually, Brio reached his destination: a room like the others, except for the fact that there was a proper door closing this one up. Without wasting more time, he knocked on it.

"C-c-coco?"

A female voice chirped from inside. "Hey! Come in!"

Brio took out the same set of keys from before, and a moment later he pushed the door open. The inside of the room looked quite different from the ones around it: clean, for the most part, with no sign of decay or erosion, it didn't even look like a prison cell considering the simple yet somewhat charming furniture. Brio had chosen simplicity, but the one living here had already made a couple of modifications during her stay.

Two doors went to the nearby cells as well, another addition made by Brio himself to relocate the nearby rooms for different functions. Heck, he could've said he'd become a proper building engineer for this one, and doing all the work by himself! _Unlike Cortex,_ he knew when and how to get his hands dirty.

And all of this, for the creature sitting on a chair in front of a desk at the right side of the cell. Once Brio walked inside, she immediately turned her eyes away from the papers she was studying and smiled brightly at him.

"Brio! I'm so happy to see you here!" she enthusiastically greeted him. Brio forced himself to reciprocate the gesture, but all he managed to do was a horrible grimace. She didn't seem to mind.

"Yes, y-y-yes, I couldn't wait to get my mind off Cortex and his f-f-foolishness," Brio explained, finally free to voice his distaste with another living being. It wasn't like Coco would've gone and talk behind his back after all… she lived here. As in, she couldn't leave.

"Well, it's great you're taking a break then!" Coco kept her smile on despite Brio's lack of interest in anything but sulking.

"Of c-c-course," Brio dismissed her. He walked up to the window of the cell and looked out, giving a glance to the scenery. Despite this one being a lower part of Cortex Castle, he was still able to admire the profiles of Wumpa Island and N. Sane Island in the distance.

"Your studies, Coco. How are they going?"

"Oh, they're going great!" Coco cooed. "I just finished the second part of the math course you've left for me, Brio!"

"What is 52 raised to the power of 3?"

Coco was surprised by the question. "Hey, I've literally learned to get derivatives to work, and you're asking me about that! Besides, it's… uh… urhm…"

"Never mind, I wanted to check something. The answer is 140 thousand and 608," Brio said, not letting Coco have the time to find a good enough result. Coco's smile faltered for a moment as she felt dejected that she had failed to answer to a simple enough question from the one person she looked up to. Also the only person she knew personally at all.

But she didn't need to know anyone else! Besides, according to Brio, Cortex was a very bad guy. She was good without meeting him face to face!

Her self-scolding thoughts were so intense that she didn't even notice Brio walking up to her. She almost jumped as the scientist started to look through the papers on the desk, examining her own hand-writing.

"You did well after all, Coco," Brio started, and Coco brightened up immediately upon hearing his praise. "You learn fast, faster than any human could ever be I think, and definitely faster than… other, uh, creatures."

"Creatures?" Coco had only heard Brio talking about Cortex, and she didn't look forward too much to meeting the man. But these… creatures? Who was he talking about? Brio had never mentioned them before.

"It's not important. You still seem to have some problems with calculus and fast thinking, but that can be fixed with time," Brio said, dismissing her observation. She was somewhat hurt by the fact Brio had avoided answering her question, preferring to press on with criticism about her studying performance, but she decided to hide her feelings regardless.

"It's a long road ahead, but I fear Cortex's stupid decisions are going to force us to speed up your education. We have to get results as well, Coco," Brio said solemnly. He was so concentrated he had managed to not stutter for thirty seconds straight, a feat that even Coco recognized.

He started to fumble with his green lab coat and before Coco could ask what he was doing, he extracted an object and presented it to Coco.

"This is a mobile computer, C-c-coco, or, in other words, a laptop," Brio explained. "You will soon learn about coding, hacking and how you can use this to your liking."

"It's… it's weird," Coco had never seen something like this before. She put the closed laptop on her desk and looked interrogatively at Brio. "What I am supposed to do with it?"

"You'll understand soon enough. For now, open it and try to turn it on—I just salvaged it from a garba—uh, I managed to obtain it elsewhere. It should work."

'_Apparently, potoroos have not great interests in informatics, even when mutated. Pinstripe was more concerned with economy and machine guns, anyway,' _Brio thought, making sure not to add this detail to his speech. He motioned Coco to go on, and when she simply looked at him with confusion, he sighed and opened the laptop himself.

"Press the p-p-power switch, Coco," Brio instructed, pointing at the button. Coco hesitantly followed the order and tentatively pressed the button with a finger. The screen lit up with a buzz, but otherwise the laptop went on with the start-up sequence.

"E-e-excellent," Brio said. He took out a few papers out of his lab coat and put them on the desk beside the computer. "These have the basis of computer manipulation, but for the rest you'll have to learn it yourself. I prefer dealing with c-c-chemicals, really."

For once, Coco missed Brio's words. Her eyes were fixed on the computer screen, the numbers and letters displaying demanding her complete attention. When the laptop finally completed the boot sequence and showed the desktop to her, Coco couldn't help letting out a yelp. She hesitantly started pressing the buttons on the keyboard, exploring, seeing what they did and trying new combinations.

"Uh, you're learning even f-f-faster than I thought. That's good," Brio commented. "Hopefully when I'll return you'll have learned much more than I could ever do."

He turned around and started for the door, and Coco suddenly realized that he was leaving. "Hey, wait!"

Brio turned around, looking at her with an intimidating frown. "I am very busy—"

"I know you are, I'm sorry," Coco was never happy to annoy Brio, especially with that glare of his, but she had wanted to do this for too long to let it go right now. "I just wanted to ask you… do you think you could, uh… let me have a walk outside?"

Brio's eyes almost exploded out of the sockets, and he went in a coughing fit. "_Cough! Cough—_what?!"

Coco immediately tried to explain herself. "No, I didn't mean to leave you or s-something like that! I just want to look around the castle for a bit, Brio. You could me show me around and then I'll be right back here studying! I promise!"

Brio calmed himself down, resisting the urge to drink up one of his potions right on the spot. This was something he expected to happen, sooner or later—he just needed to stay calm and fix it now that he could.

"I-i-it's not p-p-possible at the moment, Coco," Brio began, looking right into Coco's eyes. He immediately noticed the look of disappointment on her face.

"I'm sorry for asking you, I just wanted to, uh, I don't know… I thought it'd be fun to see something out of my room." She glanced at the windows.

Brio took in a long breath. "Listen, Coco, there are certain conditions I have to r-r-respect, but one day, this will all change."

Coco looked back at him. "What do you mean?"

"One day Cortex will n-n-no more be in charge, I just know it. I will!"

'_And I will be the one taking the power away from him.' _Another thought Brio smartly kept for himself.

"And once that will be, well… you will have that power too."

Coco felt genuinely surprised. She had never heard Brio talking like this… she was somewhat scared, even. "I… will have that?"

"Yes, together we will be an unstoppable force!" Brio realized where he was heading and reworded the next sentence. "And we will be able to achieve greatness where Cortex could not." He also forced himself not to release a demented laugh.

Coco wasn't sure how to interpret Brio's words. There were doubts growing in her mind now, as if she had just seen a side of him she had never even thought he could have. But now that he put it that way, it'd be good to work with him instead of spending her free time studying all day. He had been the one visiting her and giving her somewhere to live—as far as she could remember, at least. He had given her the magic light box—uh, laptop!

He had to have his reasons to not telling her the details about his job up in the castle. "I… understand," she finally said. "I trust you."

"Patience, young bandicoot, and you and I both will be rewarded," Brio finished. He turned around and went out, closing the door and locking it without saying goodbye. And again, Coco was alone.

He had spent only ten minutes with her… and it had been more than two days since the last time she had seen him. Brio had never been the one to show care, but she had always thought that deep down, he cared enough to think about her when he could. Now though…

'_No!' _Coco mentally reprimanded herself. _'I have to trust him! He's… he's all I have…'_

Yet, that meant she was locked in this room again, away from Brio, Cortex and whoever these 'creatures' were. Even meeting Cortex had somewhat become a pleasant event in her mind, when daydreaming in her bed or while leaning on the window and watching the landscape of the archipelago. Leaving through that was another dream of her, something that critical thinking soon showed her to be impossible, unless she was interested with an at least 40 meters-long fall. All in all, she was still stuck here.

Coco felt a tear going down her cheek, and she quickly dried it up with a sleeve of her t-shirt.

'_I can do this,' _she thought as she turned back to the laptop and started typing with conviction. _'Just keep it up, Coco!'_

* * *

"There was a time where you used to respect me, C-c-coco Bandicoot," Brio spoke again. "Where collaboration was all you ever wanted… it was what I planned since the beginning, in fact. Cortex Commandos? No, something better! Something far, far greater!"

He launched himself in an evil laugh, but his cackling was abruptly interrupted by Coco's own voice. "Just shut up, Brio!"

Brio ended up in a coughing fit, and when he managed to recover his breath he simply raised an eyebrow at her. Coco was not letting him protest, anyway.

"That was in the past! I eventually decided to turn my back at you, and I'd do it again, jerkface! And you fully remember why I did it!"

He didn't seem to be impressed by the insult. Neither did he look satisfied by the fact that Coco was visibly getting more and more nervous as their discussion continued. Nonetheless, he still replied to her.

"I do remember… b-b-but you should remember as w-w-well. What I did and why I did it… I recall explaining it, didn't I?"

Coco didn't want to, but she nodded her head. No point trying to hide what both of them knew was true.

"I thought so. And yet, you still decided to go your own way… and here you are," Brio concluded, eyeing Coco with an only slightly hidden accusatory tone.

Coco would've liked to reiterate how she didn't care, but Brio's gaze was starting to unnerve her. Not because he was ugly or even threatening no… that gaze was not one she wasn't accustomed to. On the contrary…

"What changed, C-coco Bandicoot? What made y-y-you stop giving me the respect I deserved… what made _you_ change?"

* * *

Coco let out a shout, jumping up from her chair while raising her fists up in triumph. "Yoo-hoo!" she celebrated all by herself, momentarily ignoring past reprimands from Brio about keeping it quiet at all times. She was just too giddy not to celebrate this once.

It had worked… somehow. It had taken her an entire week of hard work, hours spent with her eyes fixed on the laptop screen and fingers fast typing on the keyboard, but she had succeeded at last, and this _had _to help fix things.

The last visit from Brio hadn't gone well. The scientist was apparently _very _disappointed, as he had told her: for some reason, Brio wasn't growing to like how Coco was beginning to approach life. She was getting more curious, asking more questions, and Brio didn't appreciate either her curiosity or the new, colourful modifications to the furniture of her room… something that had slowly begun to irk her with time. But now, she was sure that things would change for the better.

The results of her last programming achievement had to show him that she had indeed grown to be a great technician, even 'master of computer', and she knew for certain that Brio wouldn't, _couldn't_ ignore that, since that was one of his requests when he understood that computing was fast becoming one of her passions. This had to work! Now, she just needed to wait and—

She heard footsteps, approaching the cell. _Fast!_

She couldn't believe her luck. He was here! And just three days since the last visit! _'Come on, Coco, don't panic,' _she thought to herself, _'you can do this. He'll be proud, you know he will!'_

However, when Nitrus Brio made his entrance in the room, Coco's smile immediately turned upside down since she immediately felt that something was very, very wrong. After all, in all of her time, she had never seen Brio literally slamming the door open and marching into the room, unannounced and basically stomping on the floor. And he was the one advocating for silence in the first place.

He was clearly upset. His head twitched as he looked around, as if he was searching the room for something, or checking if there _was_ something, and he grumbled incoherent words under his breath while he did so. Coco had never seen him like this, not even the few times he had grown annoyed at her behaviour, or when Cortex had done something particularly stupid in his opinion. She was beginning to get worried, even.

"…Brio?" Coco said timidly after a few seconds, unable to contain her curiosity. Brio jerked his head around to look at her and for a moment she thought he had seen a ghost in her place. Then, he recomposed himself.

"Oh, I still c-c-can't believe this is happ—ugh!" he groaned, bringing a hand to his forehead. "T-the fool! He did it, and I had warned him!"

"Cortex?" Coco guessed.

"Of course, him, him!" Brio rambled. "He u-u-used the Vortex on one of the mutants, that p-p-poor excuse for a scientist… 'This b-b-bandicoot will be the commander of my Cortex Commandos,' puah!"

"Wait, bandicoot?" Brio had taught her little about her origins, but Coco had become quite cunning in getting information out of him and connecting the dots. For one, the creatures Brio had let slip multiple times when talking were mutants just like her, and she knew she was a bandicoot. And that had been enough… until she heard the new snippet of information the scientist had just accidentally told her. "You mean another—"

"Why would he even choose the bandicoot, and why for such a foolish i-i-idea?! The mutants, they never needed a commander, they are already fine as they are… with varying results, maybe, but that's not the p-p-point!"

Brio shifted his gaze to look at Coco, as if he was silently accusing her of something. "Yet, Neo was just too much stubborn to listen to reason. Now, Crash is on the loose… and all of it is his fault!"

"Brio, you… you're worrying me," Coco was unable to construct a good enough reply. She was uneasy due to Brio's behaviour, and his distress was affecting her. He had talked badly about Cortex with her in the past, multiple times, but this? This was on another level, and on top of that Brio had been mentioning one new piece of information she had no clue about after the other. Commander for the mutants? Just what was he talking about?

"You're w-w-… what?" Brio questioned, and then kept speaking before she could try to explain herself better. "No, no, that's not what you should do. I n-n-need you not to worry… ugh, forget a-about it. I've come here because we're out of time, C-c-coco. Cortex has tried to fasten work with our p-p-projects lately, and with his last stunt I have realized we must act sooner as well."

Brio had somewhat calmed down, and Coco took it as her chance. She tried to muster her best smile, then she grabbed her laptop and showed the masterpiece displayed on its screen to the doctor. "Here, Brio! Look at this. I managed to do things right with the program, just as you asked! It works without a hitch!"

It was a programming conundrum Brio had specifically left for her to solve about a fortnight ago, saying back then that this was her chance to show him how good she had become with the laptop. And that she did. _'This has to cheer him up, even if only a little…'_

Brio scratched one of his eyes and observed the screen for a few moments. Then, he simply nodded. "Good, but not good enough."

Coco had to force herself from not letting her laptop fall to the ground and disassemble on impact. "Not… enough?" she managed to let out, closing the laptop and hugging it as if to protect it from Brio's calculating eyes.

"P-p-precisely. Cortex has gone too far, Coco, and we'll need more than what you did here to keep up with him," Brio said, the stuttering unable to hide the coldness in his voice, almost like he thought Coco's reaction was not appropriate. "Once the problem with the bandicoot has been dealt with, I'll have to overthrow him before he tries once again to doom us all."

Brio had already started talking clearly about taking Cortex's position by force for a while, but she was still trying to get accustomed to the scientists' now not-so-restrained venting rants. However, she tensed up before she could even try to hide her reaction as Brio looked thoughtfully at her. She couldn't help wincing; she didn't like it when Brio looked at her that way, as if he was evaluating her, judging something she had yet to fully grasp.

"You will have to keep studying until I will t-t-take the initiative… in less than a week."

"But, but Brio…" Coco couldn't hold it inside herself any longer. "You said that this was going to be my 'ultimate test'. I asked you to let me visit the rest of the castle, to get out of this room, and you said you would after I managed to do this!"

"I d-d-did, but upholding such a promise is no more possible Coco." Brio had spoken with complete sincerity and, most of all, lack of empathy. It was as if he expected her to immediately understand his reasoning, an obvious conclusion given the circumstances. But Coco was not of the same idea.

She frowned, for once the innate respect for what was basically her caretaker put in doubt. She had put sweat, restless nights and even tears in the work with the last task Brio had assigned her, she had put everything in trying at any cost to complete it before he could come to check on her and find a disappointment, and she was confident this would at least give him a reason to grant her little wish. She had never asked to leave altogether, she had even stopped asking about going outside the castle, she just expected him to let her walk around the hallways and upper parts a little bit… letting her see something different from her room, the same room she had been _closed _in for weeks, or even longer… as far as she could remember.

All of that effort… for nothing.

"You-you can't just refuse to let me out of this room like that!" Coco blurted out. Brio had not seen this one coming apparently, as he visibly recoiled from her outburst, she was basically shouting. "You can't!"

"I _can," _Brio simply stated. "I will not tolerate—"

"But you promised!" Coco went on. "You said this was my one chance, Brio! I-I just—I don't think I can bear it any longer, I want to get out of here! You're always speaking about Cortex and how he's bad, but you've been mentioning other things, even other stuff going on beyond the castle, and you never, _ever_ explained anything!"

She was rambling, but she couldn't stop, not now. She had crossed the Rubicon, and there was no turning back now.

"You just talked about other people out there, other than Cortex, someone like me! And now you just said there's a bandicoot _on the loose_, a bandicoot like _me! _And I should just stay here and keep studying? Why?!"

"Because that's what you're supposed to do, Coco." Brio was scowling now, though he had yet to raise his voice back at her.

"But… but you said…" Coco didn't know how to retort. Brio talked only with absolutes, and her limited knowledge of the world beyond what she had been taught to learn by Brio meant she couldn't really work on expressing her feelings well. But her distress was still very real.

Distress that, eventually, turned into anger.

"You lied! Why don't you just listen to me, Brio, I thought you would do this for me! You're, you're a—"

_ZAP!_

Coco screamed and fell down, her legs failing her. The laptop fell beside her, rebounding off the floor, but she was too frightened to care. She quickly moved backwards until her back was leaning on a nearby wall, her face a mask of utter fear and her hands reaching out as if looking for a way out that was not there.

Brio held a weapon on his hand. Coco didn't know what it was, but the effects of it were meaningful enough. The scientist had just shot it at a nearby piece of furniture, which had exploded on the spot. He was unfazed by the few flames left on the pieces of burnt wood. Neither did he look worried by the noise he had to have caused with the blast. He had only eyes for the bandicoot.

"You are supposed to stay here, because _I made you to be so," _Brio said coldly, "And you b-b-better keep that in mind, Coco. You are meant to do great things, but you'll have to wait for the right moment to do it. Hopefully, soon Cortex will cease to hinder our progress and you and I will both be free. But until then…"

He raised the weapon and let the finger move slowly on the trigger, making sure to fully show to Coco what he was doing.

"For your sake… you will remember what will happen if you ever so… think of acting like this again. I will come again after the situation going on with the bandicoot has been dealt with and I have come to a conclusion in how to a-a-approach Cortex. Until then, keep up with your studies, I expect to find you ready soon."

He turned around and moved out, closing the door behind himself.

Of course, he ignored the crying he could faintly hear coming through it.

* * *

"I… did not change, Brio. You did… or better, you stopped faking whatever you were trying to be when you were around. You never told me what exactly did you want to do back then, Brio… and, in the end, you even threatened me," Coco said through her teeth. "You didn't leave me a choice… you just… expected me to follow blindly whatever you said."

"Y-y-yes, I did, b-b-b…" Brio spluttered. "But it was my only choice on that matter as well. You weren't collaborating, and time wasn't on my side."

"And how was I supposed to act? Just stay put like a good girl and waiting for entire days in that darn cell?!" she blurted out.

Brio didn't reply, but he didn't look away either. Coco hated that, the way he looked at her like she was stating the obvious.

"No, no… I wasn't going to keep living like that," she decided to go on by herself to make her point. "Not like that. And I don't regret the decision of doing it."

Brio grunted. "I d-d-do recall when you did it."

* * *

The temperature was rising in the room. It had started slow at first and barely perceivable, but now Coco was sweating due to the heat. It was a bit because of that, a bit because of her continuous attempts to break down the door.

It had all happened so fast… she was in the room at one point, sulking on her chair and desk, frowning at the thought of the current predicament concerning Brio. All of a sudden, she noticed that there was some faint light coming through the window, and when she checked out what was going on, she saw the first fires breaking out at the base of the castle. It was only a few minutes before the entire lower part of the stronghold had turned into an infernal furnace: the flames were advancing fast upwards, towards her cell.

She needed _to get out!_

Coco gritted her teeth, raised the chair, and charged with a shout at the door, forgetting days of lessons about good behaviour and her own affection towards the furniture she had personalized, defeated by her will to not burn alive. The chair broke into pieces, and for a moment she believed that once again she had failed.

Then, she saw it. A dent, no, an entire hole! She could even see through the door, where… flames were already there. The corridor wasn't completely on fire yet, thankfully, but she knew she had little time to escape.

She grabbed the first pieces of wood she could find and started to try and yank the door out. While the hinges and lock kept resisting, the wood itself had apparently worn out with age, too much to bear much force and even worse when subjected to the rising temperatures, so she started to destroy the thing piece by piece. Coco had to salvage bars from the broken chair and even went and disassembled her desk to create levers and other things she could use to pull at the hole's sides and keep enlarging it. Eventually, she managed to create an opening big enough for her to fit in.

Before she could make a step through the damaged door, though, Coco stopped herself, her eyes losing focus as if she just remembered something. She looked back at her now decaying room, despite her sweaty forehead and wet clothes, not to mention the temperature progressively getting less and less bearable.

It was… strange. To leave the place she had basically lived in for most of her life, definitely most of what she remembered. Lately she had grown to loathe it due to her recent problems, but before any of that… she couldn't ignore the fact that it had been her home for such a long time.

Her eyes fell on her laptop. Coco had even gone out of her way to transform the generic grey-coloured computer Brio had found into a cute-looking pink piece of electronics. It had been hard getting Brio to collaborate and hand her the resources needed, just like for everything else in the room, but she was happy with the final result.

Happy… that thing had probably been her main source of happiness for weeks… and she was leaving it behind.

A moment later, Coco got out of her room through the damaged door—laptop in hand, of course. She passed a hand over her forehead, removing the wild hair strands from her eyes, then she started to move. She didn't know where she was going, but the plan was simple: getting away from the fires. She could do that even without having a mental map of the castle in mind.

While running down hallways, Coco couldn't help noticing the state of derail around her. As the fires had yet to come and consume everything, she saw abandoned tables covered with dust, portraits filled with spider webs and broken windows here and there. It was like she was going through a completely abandoned part of the castle… something she didn't expect to see. Brio had never told her about the full size of the thing in detail—perhaps, it was even bigger than she thought.

As Coco ran up to a half-open door, noises of something collapsing came from behind her, and Coco heard a quake going through the hallway. Shaking her head, she decided to focus on her current goal and ignored the door and the key that had been left on it for some reason, and when she saw stairs lit up from torches down this corridor, she kept running towards them. Upon reaching them, Coco started for the upper floor: she knew that going downwards was no use when the fires were coming from below, but the castle was big enough that she hoped she could find another exit somewhere else.

She was so immersed in her thoughts about her next move that when she reached the next level she didn't immediately notice the figure in front of her. And when she did, she halted in her tracks abruptly, her sneakers screeching on the tiles as she was moving so fast she skidded for a meter. When she finally stopped moving she found herself basically face to face with no other than Dr. Nitrus Brio himself.

"C-c-coco?"

Coco yelped and stepped back, both in fear and surprise. Brio, however, didn't look like he was particularly distressed by her appearance… if anything, he was _already _in distress for different matters.

Considering the fire going on below them, that should not have been surprising. And yet…

"Why are you even—ugh. Forget ab-ab-about it. We are going out." Brio looked around, as if expecting someone to appear at any moment.

"W-we?" Coco spluttered. It was hard for her to believe her ears.

"Yes, in case you m-m-missed the fact that there is an issue with fires below us, well, we have a problem," Brio explained matter-of-factly. "Cortex has lost it, but once we take out the bandicoot I should be able to salvage most of my work. I've taken my decision, he's too far gone and now he can only think of revenge, but I can look beyond it and even m-m-make use of his short-sightedness."

He offered his hand to Coco. "We've had our d-d-discrepancies, Coco, but now that is no m-m-more important. Join me and to do what you were always supposed to d-d-do. Come, now."

Coco observed him for a few seconds. Her opinions concerning Brio had changed a lot in the last week… if anything, her admiration had turned into something dangerously close to hatred. She couldn't forget her last encounter with him.

But even so… what Brio was offering her had basically been her life goal since the very beginning. She couldn't remember the early times well, but Brio had always been there one way or another, before he started to appear more and more rarely to visit. And here he was again for her, telling her that her time had finally come. She could be free of her prison, and she could work with him to reach the 'greatness' he had talked about so many times in the past.

There was something though… something that put her on the edge. Something in Brio's eyes as he looked at her carefully, waiting for her to walk forward and take his hand. She remembered how he had destroyed part of her room just to show her who was in charge… she remembered that she _expected _her to do things, and just accept when he couldn't maintain promises.

Coco made a step forward, but her arms didn't move. Eventually, Brio retracted his hand when he noticed that Coco's own hands had closed into fists.

"You… how you dare even say this to me _now?!" _Coco exploded. "You left me in there, while the castle was burning!"

"I came a-as soon as it was p-possible for me to come," Brio replied half-heartedly.

"That wasn't soon enough, I had to break down the door or else I'd be _baked now!" _Coco went on, her front scrunched in a frown and her anger rising as she looked at Brio's unimpressed face. "You threatened me, you lied to me multiple times, only wanting me to do random stuff without _nothing _in return, and now you expect me to just forget it all and come beside you!?"

Brio opened his mouth to speak, but Coco cut her off. "I'm done listening to you, Brio! I got out of my room, no, my _cell _by myself, and I can live doing the same, by myself, _without you!_ You're mean, you don't care about me, I don't want to see you ever again… I-I _hate you!"_

The scientist didn't react at first, but he didn't speak either. He simply looked at Coco with an undecipherable expression, watching her as her anger turned into sorrow, now that she had finally lashed out and let out what she really thought about her 'caretaker'. Coco fell on her knees and, despite her attempts at holding in, she wept.

She didn't know for how long she cried. She only stopped when she heard Brio's voice once again.

"I thought you were better than your b-b-brother."

Coco's looked up, her eyes still teary but her crying suddenly killed by what the scientist had just uttered. "B-b-brother?"

"I thought you were on another level c-c-compared to Crash, that you could be a perfect candidate to aid me in future achievements, plans and machinations… but I g-g-guess I was wrong, for once. You might be brighter, but I made the same mistake as Cortex in the end… ugh. I'll have to dispose of his failure by myself, it seems."

Brio coughed, then he partly turned around, looking at her sideways. "Get out of my sight, leave this c-castle for all I care… if you can make it."

Coco stared at him as he fully turned his back at her and started walking away. Before she could realize it, Brio was gone.

She probably would've started crying once again if it wasn't for the fact the temperature had risen again. Not to mention the fact that, right on her left, the entire hallway going in that direction collapsed down, revealing the inferno of flames below and lighting up the entire section. Coco screamed, jumping away and catching her laptop as a last thought before she could lose her grasp on it, getting away from the hole.

She looked at the irreparable damage for a second before sniffing and messily passing an arm over her nose, deciding that her tears would dry up by themselves. She looked for a moment at the direction Brio had chosen to follow, and decided to take the third route, opposite of the hole in the pavement.

She needed to get out… and thinking about getting out was better than thinking about what would happen after she did.

* * *

"I remember I had expectations in you, C-c-coco Bandicoot. Thoughts that, eventually, I realized were ill-placed," Brio said. He let out another cough, and had to hold in a head tick before he could continue.

"Yet, despite my misjudgement, I still sometimes wonder… what could've b-b-become of you, if you didn't… do it."

Coco breathed in, measuring her words before deciding how to reply. Eventually, she decided to be brunt. "I don't."

"You don't…?"

"I don't wonder what I could've become if I stayed with you. I'd rather not have nightmares at night, for starters… but more importantly, I know that the… person you wanted me to become, it wouldn't have been something I wanted, it wouldn't have been _me._ I _know _you, Nitrus Brio, and I know who you really are now. And I'm nothing you think I am, _even if you 'invented' me."_

Brio frowned; for once he seemed to be actually annoyed by her words.

"So, I'd appreciate if you just left me alone… me and Crash as well. You won't have much other than a 'thank you' for helping us with Cortex's last mis-match, from me at least… after that, we're done."

He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then he started to grumble. "C-c-cortex, the fool… At least, we can agree he got what he deserved."

Coco didn't want to prolong the conversation any longer, and she would've looked away if it wasn't for Crash. Her brother, seemingly satisfied with the meteor spectacle, had come between her and the scientist, looking at both of them with an interrogative face. Crash had noticed that both of them weren't exactly happy-looking right now, but he didn't seem to have realized that Brio and Coco hadn't been friendlily chatting while he was distracted.

Either that, or perhaps Coco had learned to cope with the memories, more than her supposed 'creator' would've thought. That might've been the reason why she still managed to smile upon seeing her brother. Or perhaps, she was just happy to see a reassuring face.

"Let's go Crash, there's nothing left for us here," Coco said simply, and started to move towards the stairs going down the ruined castle. Crash waved at Brio with a grin, while Brio simply glared at him—maybe he didn't fully forget about his own encounter with Crash—without further words. Soon, they were going down, and Brio was left behind.

While walking down the stairs with Crash behind her, Coco couldn't help thinking about the unexpected trip down the memory lane she had just gone through thanks to Brio. She had always tried to hide most of her memories from that time, believing them all to be harsh, bad remembrance of the past… but they were still part of her, one way or another. Accepting them and what happened to her in the past was just something she probably should have started to learn… perhaps, she had already done so, as Brio himself had discovered while interrogating her earlier.

What Brio thought, though, was really irrelevant in Coco's mind. She had Aku-Aku now, and Crash. She was content this way.

Moreover… not all the memories from those times were bad.

* * *

Coco looked at the castle in the distance. It had been three days since she had managed to escape from Cortex's stronghold, and yet some parts of it were still fuming with smoke. The bandicoot Cortex was so interested in had made quite a number… not that it worried her that much. She knew that Crash was gone, as she had managed to see a purple blimp depart from the archipelago the same day she had left the castle.

It had been hard, but she had eventually succeeded in getting out of that flame inferno in the end. Some areas of her body still hurt due to burns she couldn't avoid, but all in all she was happy to have made it out in one piece… and with her laptop as well!

Too bad the battery had depleted itself in the span of half an hour of use… until she could go back in there and search for spare ones, the laptop was simply a piece of metal and dead electronics, effectively taking her only pastime hobby away from her.

Yet, Coco couldn't really say she wasn't without a lot of think about. For example, even without Cortex and his henchmen the islands were full of hazards, including dangerous creatures and unwelcoming natives. At one point a plant had tried to eat her. A plant! Coco had started to literally double-check every leaf she had to touch due to her first encounter with one of those things... she was convinced she couldn't trust any chlorophyll-containing living being anymore after that experience.

And then there was also the need for her to actually survive, doing things such as looking for food all by herself. All in all, life was definitely simpler in the castle, when everything was provided to her and all she had to think about was…

…Brio.

Coco frowned. She had thought about him quite a few times lately, and she wasn't sure what to think of him. He could be gone along with Cortex for all she knew, lost in the chaos of the burning castle or even defeated by Crash himself. The real problem was… was she supposed to be concerned, or happy?

She huffed. It was irrelevant at that point what had become of him. He had revealed his true intentions in the end, and she had made her choice… and now, at least, she was free from his control. It was better this way… even if she had had to eat only wumpa fruits for a straight two days. And had not talked to anyone but herself—insulting the piranha plants and unsuccessfully trying to communicate with the tribesmen during her first encounter with them didn't really count.

Her stomach grumbled as if to highlight her thoughts. "All right… I better move," she said to herself before getting up, trying to muster all the energy she had. The castle was very far from here, as she had ultimately ended up on N. Sane Island, the farthest one and possibly safest place in the archipelago. As long as he stayed away from the nearby tribe, of course.

She dusted herself off. Coco hadn't managed to find spare clothes yet, and by now she had been too stubborn to attempt to wash them. As a result, her entire attire had started to wear out a little bit. Her white shirt had stopped being 'white' for a while, and one of the suspenders had lost a button and was left hanging by her side. Most of all, her hair was a mess, her ponytail gone and hair strands let loose around her entire head, and she constantly had to remove rebel fringes from her face.

She _of course _knew she wasn't really in decent condition, but for now she decided that she could try to get something under her teeth first, possibly not wumpa fruit again. Then, she'd have to do something about her hygiene.

'_So, where do I look for…?' _she mentally wondered as she looked around the beach. Those giant crabs were nowhere to be seen, though she wouldn't have known how to capture one without having a hand cut off in one snap anyway.

'_Oh, there must be something I can eat that isn't those darn fruits again! I could—'_

Coco lifted her eyebrows. She had seen something… and she was incredulous.

There was… someone, going in her direction. As it came closer, she could make out the features better.

A mutant, but not one of those big guys Brio had described. Orange fur, blue denims… a bandicoot… just like her.

Her past 'caretaker' had never described Crash in detail, but there was no doubt about it. There was only Coco's own incredulity preventing her from believing what she was seeing.

That, and the tiki mask _floating_ beside the male bandicoot, and _talking_ with him. Now, that sort of made her think the entire scene was just her imagination.

"Now, Crash, I don't think you should really think about Tawna that much," the mask spoke with a solemn voice. "You had your moments, after all. She'll come visit sometime, I'm sure."

Crash shrugged without conviction, and blabbered something back. "I'm sure a distraction will help with your predicament. We should really decide to look for a place to let you rest in, Crash. I'm sure you would appreciate a cosy bed to lie on, huh?"

Crash nodded vigorously… in fact, he raised a finger as he had an idea, then produced out of nowhere a wumpa fruit. He grinned at the floating mask.

"Well, yeah, lie on a cosy bed while having a snack break, I guess," the mask laughed. "We'll have to build it first, that and the entire house. Now, how should we beg—"

He stopped as something caught his attention, and when Crash followed his gaze even he noticed that there was someone in front of them.

Coco had no idea just how bad her appearance was after three days in the wild, but for Crash and Aku Aku, she was quite the spectacle. In fact, while Crash was just as surprised as Coco by her appearance, though for different reasons, the first reaction from Aku-Aku was alarm.

"Oh, no! Another mutant from Cortex!" he shouted. "Careful, Crash!"

Crash looked at Aku-Aku for a moment, then he looked at Coco. He might've not been bright, but he wasn't stupid… well, not _that _stupid. He shook his head, showing that he didn't share Aku-Aku's worries.

The tiki mask wasn't convinced and he initially kept his eyes fixed inquisitively on Coco.

"Who are you?" he finally said, deciding that perhaps Crash was at least partly right.

Coco didn't answer. The talking mask was enough of a weird image, but her entire attention was really focused on the bandicoot in front of her. Feeling watched, Crash decided that he could try to break the ice first. He approached Coco, not before his nose could detect some smell he didn't like. He agitated a hand in front of his nose, then realized that the source was the girl, and tried his best to keep his manners with the little he remembered from his experience with Tawna.

Eventually, he walked up to Coco until he was right in front of her. He was just slightly taller, but otherwise they were pretty similar in size. Wondering what to do, Crash decided to simply offer his hand to the unknown bandicoot girl.

The girl simply kept staring at him with widened eyes. If Crash had to be honest, she was starting to look quite creepy, but before he could try another approach, Coco's eyes shifted to the floating tiki mask. Then, she looked at Crash again.

"A-a-… A-are you… C-crash?" she managed to spit out.

Crash simply grinned and made a double thumbs-up sign with both his hands.

"Yes, he is," Aku-Aku had by now realized that there was no real danger behind this strange bandicoot girl that had appeared out of nowhere… for now. "My name is Aku-Aku, and I've accompanied Crash since I met him."

Coco looked at Aku-Aku. She had a few questions… actually, a dozens of them. But right now, she could only think of one thing.

"Crash…" she turned her eyes back to Crash once again. "Are you… is that really you? Crash?"

Crash nodded again, smiling heartily.

Something broke inside Coco. His continuous smile, the way he was just content with talkin—err, communicating with her… it was something new, something she had never really gotten from Brio.

And he was _her brother._

She couldn't hold it any longer. Crash could only see a tear escaping from one of Coco's eyes before the girl suddenly tackled him in a hug. Crash barely managed to not fall down along with her, and the move was so sudden that even Aku-Aku was startled. Both would've probably have reacted more if it wasn't for Coco's sobs.

No, she wasn't just crying, she was bawling her eyes out. Crash wasn't sure what to think of it, and even Aku-Aku was a bit lost in how to handle this matter at first, even for a wise tiki spirit. In the end, Crash mused that there was no reason why he shouldn't just let this girl let it all out (at most, he could wash himself over by the creek later if needed), and he hugged her back.

Coco by that point had lost count of the seconds that had passed since she had started crying. She couldn't think straight either, she could only weep and hold her brother with all the strength she had. The only thing she could do at one point was simply turning her head up a little.

He was there, and he was still smiling.

And by then, she knew that she had found family, and that everything would be okay.

**THE END**


End file.
